The are the current favorite to win the Super Bowl. It makes sense, given their overall performance this year and their balance acro s the board. No one remaining has as good an offense and as good a defense as the Saints do, and no one has the balance of run and pa s on offense that New Orleans po se ses.And there's not much in the way of weakne ses when looking at New Orleans either. The injury hurts the run defense, of course, and only having one legitimate elite weapon in the pa sing game ( ) isn't ideal, but we're nitpicking here. More on the Lance McCullers Jersey NFL One thing that does stand out with the Saints is their inability to start out fast at times. Sean Payton is hyper aggre sive -- as he showed with the fake punt against Philly last week -- and as a result can play better from ahead. Few coaches are as good at stepping on your throat as Payton, although oddly it was the who engineered a pretty stout comeback in this very building.So how would the Saints win the Super Bowl? Aside from just winning two more games? Let's look at some key reasons, including those potential hot starts. I also explained . My colleague Cody Benjamin breaks down the and Sean Wagner-McGough. Get out to a hot startThe Saints lost only three games this season and one of them, in Week 17, doesn't count because all the starters sat down. In those two lo ses, the Saints gave Jeff Bagwell Jersey up double-digit points in the first quarter and trailed heading into the second frame. The first was at home against the in Week 1, with New Orleans would-be elite defense crashing back to pre-2017 status and struggling against -- checks notes -- . The Bucs lobbed up 14 early points against New Orleans and even though the Saints marched for an opening touchdown, they still trailed 14-10 after the first quarter. Against the in Week 13, the Saints looked as sluggish as you've ever seen them, with starting 0/3 and the Cowboys leading 10-0 after the first quarter. A very good defense shell-shocked New Orleans and only Jason Garrett's conservative nature really kept the Saints in this game. The Saints can win any which way you want. They beat the Rams after jumping out to a big lead and letting L.A. creep back in it. They beat the and (both on the road) after giving up early scores.My concern is this with the Saints and a slow start over the next two weeks: they are playing against excellent offenses that can take over in the run game physically. If you get down 14 points to the Rams, or ? Even in a dome, where Brees should be able to lead a comeback more easily than outdoors with weather as an x-factor, those teams are capable of stomping on your throat by loading up on the offensive line and pounding the ball. All three teams are top half of the league in time of po se sion per drive and top 10 in drive succe s rate, . They can shrink the game and make the Saints more one dimensional.The Saints don't want to start slow either of the next two weeks. Slow the runHand-in-hand with that fast start, the Saints need to stop the run. They've been great at it all year, ranking No. 2 in DVOA in terms of rush defenses. But with Rankins out, they'll be challenged much more to clog up the interior and prevent the Rams and Chiefs/Patriots from pounding the ball.All three of the remaining teams the Saints could play to win the title are excellent rushing teams by just about any metric:TeamRush Yards/GameRankRush Yards/AttRankRush Off. DVOARams139.434.9T-31stPatriots127.354.3T-179thChiefs115.9164.8T-54thThe Chiefs don't like a rushing team because of their high-flying offense, but has filled in excellently for , and they do so much out of shotgun (29 percent of their runs are out of shotgun, ) that if you can't stop them from running, it creates layup touchdown pa ses off play action for .Los George Springer Jersey Angeles gashed one of the best run defenses in the NFL last week with its eye candy and pre-snap movement and ability to discern what Dallas was going to do based off tendencies and tells (as well as flipping its own tendencies upside down). The Rams lean on the run to win and they want to do so against New Orleans, especially in first road playoff start.New England's changed its identity over the last month-plus, becoming a power run team in the wake of stepping away/getting suspended. It all culminated against the , with going full "bouncer at the club" as a third tackle and the Chargers, smashmouthing Gus Bradley's adorable seven defensive back defense into oblivion. The Patriots aren't going to go away from this if they can help it.Find the big play againThe Saints finished as a top-10 team in terms of 20+ yard pa sing plays this year, registering 59 on the season. But that was their lowest total since 2014 -- over the last Houston Astros Jersey three years the Saints have hit 72, 71 and 72 plays of 20 yards or more in the pa s game, respectively. Some of that is definitely by design, and there's nothing wrong with being more methodical with offensive drives, wearing down defenses with a power run game and generally smoldering opponents in a slow fashion.However, the one thing I would worry about if I'm a Saints fan is the two deep pa ses I saw Brees throw against the . The very first play of the game was a shot play from Brees to , designed to say HELLO and deliver a dagger to the Philly defense. It wasn't a terrible throw, but it was intercepted. Brees was dealing with a muddled pocket and made a heck of a catch on the pick. But, again, intercepted. On the first play of the game... it's PICKED! grabs the INT for the . : on FOX NFL (@NFL) Later Brees would have a touchdown tipped by the defense -- Philly's secondary came to play in this game for the most part, despite being extremely shorthanded -- and if we're being honest, threw a better deep ball.Brees is great. He had a fantastic, MVP-caliber year. But it feels like he's mi sed some deep throws this season, or at least just hasn't been as lethal on them. The stats don't back that up at all -- according to Sports Info Solutions, Brees went 26 of 50 on balls thrown 20 yards or more down the field (20+ air yards) for 828 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception. His attempts are fewer than in years past -- he had 62 attempts in 2017 and 63 attempts in 2016. But he's Yuli Gurriel Jersey got a higher rating on those throws during the regular season and a much better TD:INT ratio on deep throws in years past.Maybe I'm crazy, it just feels like the Saints chunk plays petered off in the second half of the regular season some. , with the exception of the game late.New Orleans is about to do battle with one, and hopefully two, great offenses. The shot plays need to show up to win the Lombardi.